One of the common elements required in electrical circuit devices is the pull-up or pull-down resistor from an active device to one of the power supply buses, typically referred to as Vcc. The pull-up is simple if used to construct a circuit using discrete components in that all that is required is selecting a resistor of the desired resistance and tolerance, connecting it between an active device such as an open collector transistor and Vcc, and the transistor's output would be pulled up to Vcc once the transistor is forward biased. With the advent of integrated circuitry, however, fabricating a resistance onto a wafer substrate, such as silicon or gallium arsenide, takes special consideration, particularly when resistivity and tolerances play an important part in circuit operation.
For example, as SRAMs have evolved from the 4 Kb memory arrays to more densely packed array sizes, tolerances of pull-up resistances had to be tightly controlled. In order to minimize standby current, many fabrication processes adopted use an active device as the pull-up. In CMOS fabrication, it is common to see a PMOS transistor acting as the current path between a memory cell access transistor and the power supply bus. In this manner, the PMOS transistor can be gated "on" only when the desired line is to be pulled up to Vcc and turned "off" otherwise. This in essence eliminates leakage current and minimizes standby current for the SRAM device as a whole.
The main drawback to using an active device for a pull-up device is the amount of space required to fabricate the device. Now that the SRAM generation has grown to the 1 Mb array size, die space is a critical factor to consider. Technology has basically pushed all types of integrated circuits to be more densely packed, and pull-ups are a common element in many circuit designs.
Although the invention primarily arose out of concerns associated with resistor fabrication in SRAM circuitry, the artisan will appreciate is applicability of the inventive technology elsewhere, with the invention only being limited by the accompanying claims appropriately interpreted in accordance with the doctrine of equivalents.